The Skyscraper technique

The skyscraper technique is taking a topic that’s already been explained by the experts and creating something even better.

So, if you wish to outshine them, you have to go an extra mile to create a rich content.

You have to gather all the experts’ opinions and create a beautiful amalgam of information.

This blend of information, just like an exploding lava, will make everything else go out of the scene.

The skyscraper technique is analogous to watching a tall building and aiming to build an even taller one.

The concept of this technique is very simple and direct.

Brian Dean, the brains behind Backlinko and also the architect of The Skyscraper technique, took the pilot step.

He applied this technique when he started writing blogs for Backlinko.

He observed a 110% increase in his search traffic in just 14 days.

How did he do such an amazing job in just 14 days?

Let me share Brian’s story with you.

When he first started writing for his blog, he knew that he was stepping into a very saturated world of online marketing. So, he needed a systematic strategy to stand out from the rest of his peers.

Fortunate for him, he came up with an unbeatable strategy.

The approach is explained in four easy steps

Step#1: Finding a Keyword

The initial step of a building construction is to find a plot to build on. Likewise, in content construction, the first step is to find a keyword.

Your keyword must be a link-worthy buzzword. And your whole content has to revolve around that keyword.

One of the easiest ways to find a keyword for your content is to search for competitive keywords on Google.

Google will find the content with highly authoritative links for you on its first page. You can find the most popular blogs, articles, and videos referencing to that keyword.

Another way of exploring the capabilities of your keyword is to directly let a tool measure it. Different tools like ahrefs, MajesticSEO and Open Site Explorer weigh the authority of the pages referring to your keyword.

Brian noticed that keywords like Google’s ranking factors, Google’s 200 ranking symbols had a high potential in gaining traffic. So, he set this keyword as a plot of his skyscraper.

Step#2: Study the top-ranked posts

Read the top-ranked posts created by Google to see what’s already out there. These posts will act as a base of your skyscraper. Keep stacking all the star points you gather from these posts to utilize in your next step.

Step#3: Creating a better post

You are all energetic and motivated to start writing the best post ever. But you need some starting point.

Just like you have to dig out the best points from the already existing content, you have to read it with an eye of the tiger and find out the inadequacies.

Jot down how you are going to fill the gaps that you noticed in the original post.

This is your time to outplay the legends. You have read the most popular posts and you are about to make the content that is way better in quality.

You can take care of a few things to improve the quality of your blog.

Elongate your Content

While staying relevant to the topic, try to enrich your content with firm information.

For example, if you see an article listing 20 tips to Manage your Brand Online, with some research, you could pitch in 50 or even 100 tips for your audience. The bigger the number, the more attractively your content will vibrate.

Why is it so?

Because we are all hungry for information. We need more tips to make our processes dynamic.

If you provide a list of 100 tips to your audience they will try to adopt at least 20 of those. It will give them an ample amount of options to choose from.

Likewise, if you’re giving a bigger list of tools for brand Management, you’re giving them enough options to try. And, if you explain each tool and distinguish their features for them, they get a narrower direction for their next move.

There’s a fine line between elongating something and dragging it. Don’t give the reader a vibe that you’re being irrelevant and elongating it just for the sake of a longer blog. That will make them lose their interest and bounce off.

It is totally understandable that sometimes the elongation becomes cringe-worthy. It takes the living juices out of you to create something extravagant, but it could also double the output.

Remember that you have to top everything that is out there. And if you lose in this case, you will lose in the battle too.

Sight for the sore eyes

One of the best ways to improve the quality of your content is by making it visually appealing.

Don Norman, the author of The Design of Everyday Things, says

“Attractive things work better… When you wash and wax a car, it drives better, doesn’t it? Or at least feels like it does.”

I couldn’t agree more with him, because design actually does induce a positive energy inside the user.

Marketers shouldn’t underestimate the power of good design.

A beautified content is a lead magnet.

You can generate many social shares by simply creating a visually attractive piece.

You don’t need to complicate things to make them look pretty, but you have to do the right amount of effort.

To adorn your content, you can:

Use visual images to support your text.

Employ user-friendly fonts.

Improve the layout of your website.

Enhance the usability of the website.

Use simple and easy language.

Create harmony in your content.

Use short sentences and short paragraphs to engage the reader.

Place the call-to-action on the right spot.

Use the right colors.

You can consolidate all these rules together in your blog/website and check the results.

YouTube is the second most powerful search engine after Google. In fact, people prefer to use YouTube to search for videos rather than Google.

You can check the statistics for other content marketing approaches too.

Detail-rich content

Content can easily be scaled by being thorough.

You might get a lot of content for the same topic, but it could lack in this aspect.

So, the most basic need for a user is to find complete information from a single blog. They don’t want to switch between different blogs to gather each time to gather complete knowledge. It’s both time consuming and exhaustive.

You can’t complete the whole world’s knowledge in a single blog post or a video. But, you can comprehend all the relevant information in a single go.

And, you also need to take care of your story through which you’re exhibiting information. You can’t just blurt out facts after facts and expect the user to fathom it.

Your content should be thorough and at the same time, make sense to the reader.

Now if your motto is to list down some tools or tips, you must be thinking how can you be elaborative about it.

My tip for you is to highlight all the pros and cons of the tools you mention. Compare different tools and bring out the best one for your audience. Classify each tool according to the need.

And if you’re writing some tips and tricks in your blog, support them with case studies and user-examples.

Thoroughness adds detail and value to your content.

Brian noticed that most of the ranking factor lists lacked detail and references. So, that’s what he did. He added detail to each one of his points to make it look like this.

Stay Current

You could find an outdated piece of content even on the first page of Google.

If you succeed in supporting your content with newer information, you already have an edge over the original content.

Before you start writing about a certain topic, gather all the substantial facts and figures. That will help you refurbish the outdated content more efficiently.

There is no room for error in your content so it is essential for you to build on accurate information.

Brian noticed that the already listed ranking factors were outdated and lacked some of the important factors.

This pumped him up to create something better to help people around him in a better way.

Reach out to the right Audience

Having discussed the best strategy to create your content, the next step is to market it.

Derek Halpern, the CEO of Social Triggers Inc., says 20% of effort should be spent on creating the content while 80% on promoting it.

You can find people who have already linked to the similar content and ask them to reshare your content.

That’s a solid tactic to hit the audience concerned with your niche.

Scaling your content is very important to grow in the competitive market.

Anyhow, let’s talk about some strategies through which you’d be able to easily scale your content marketing.

Movement-First, Distribution-Next

Movement-First

Movement-first content marketing works on the principle that states; create a smaller audience first, gain credibility, and then scale.

So, basically, it refrains you from adopting a hasty marketing strategy right after launching your product.

The movement-first apostles believe that you have to first educate your loyal consumers about your product. And later, you can channelize your growth through them.

The same could be applied to your content marketing strategy.

Your content should outreach to the people who are already on board with you.

Connect with a fewer amount of people in your niche and gradually build up your marketing campaign from there.

That is how Apple built its market. Instead of creating a mediocre product with fewer features for everybody. They targeted on gaining desirability among fewer people.

Those few people became their die-hard fans and spoke for their products themselves.

This strategy wins loyal customers for you who are then ready to spread the word widely.

The same way, your content could automatically scale if you have inspired a few smart people in your niche. They could fan out your content on their channels for the audience that follows them. This way your content stumbles upon the relevant audience.

Movement-first helps you in optimizing your content in a better way with a higher probability of broad distribution. Your polished content shines at a greater spectrum and you start with a highly respectable status in the market.

Impact vs Distribution

Quality of your content stands at a very risky hem.

You can’t influence a broader market with your opinionated content. You have to create a small bubble with a small audience, make them understand your viewpoint, and then burst the bubble.

The inverse relation between impact and distribution makes you compromise on one thing at one time.

The movement-first strategy doesn’t earn you a gigantic conversion rate in a fortnight.

But, it does promise you a vigorous progression.

If you slowly and steadily keep on influencing the influencers, then you definitely win the race.

Distribution-Next

The next step of movement-first strategy is to distribute your content.You have earned your respect and now you have to scale your outreach.

The good thing about going sequentially is that your place becomes secure and distribution after that is a piece of cake.

It doesn’t let people oppose you because you have a strong back and a deep-rooted basement.

A transition between the two phases of movement-first and distribution-next is critical. You have to find the right time to push through the threshold of your momentum.

The way you distribute your content solely depends upon you. You could do it via email marketing, organic search, or any other platform for that matter.

SaaS companies need a rapid ROI for staying alive. This step helps them generate a more SEO driven content which is a bulls-eye for search engines.

The curse of Distribution-first, Movement-Next

SaaS companies often do the mistake of taking the wrong direction. They start with creating content and distributing it right away without creating a standard audience.

They try to speak for everyone by creating SEO driven content just to be on Google’s first page. Which is good but building a loyal customer base first is a vigilant approach.

Hit the right target and go ecstatic from there!

Distribution Plan

The integral part of this step is to make a proper distribution plan. You have to make a proper channel through which you’re going to approach your audience. It is very necessary at this point to not get intimidated and come up with the best distribution strategy.

Your distribution plan should reinforce a strong relationship with your target audience. Focus on the types of distribution channels through which you can entertain your audience.

Owned Content Distribution: This category procures your business’s owned channels through which you natively advertise yourself. For example; your company’s blog, websites, newsletters, social media pages, and your landing page. This is your primary identity and you have to make these channels as appealing as possible.

Paid Content Distribution: You have to break all the confines when you’re on your product’s scale-voyage. Paid Ads are conducive for your conversion rate. Distribution done via paid ads comes under this category.Capterra gathers the investment vs revenue compilation and states that with each dollar spent on paid email marketing, you can generate a revenue of $44.25. Same characteristics could also be measured for Google and other social media Ads.

Earned Content Distribution: Distribute your content by guest posting, encouraging influencers to share and retweet your content. Third-party collaboration could also be a green light for your content distribution. Not only does it help you scale your marketing but it also ensures a trustworthy relationship with your audience.

A healthy relationship with your peers also helps you a lot in your outreach. Earned content distribution is the king channel to get good quality backlinks and to get promoted among your lookalike audience.That’s how PR nurtures your brand.

Content Distribution Matrix

Observe the behavior of your audience and utilize these three channels as required. Smart Insights helps marketers in analyzing the effectiveness of their content distribution through different media. With the help of a content distribution matrix, keep an eye on how your ads and promotions repay you.

Multi-channel Marketing

Your brand needs to be talked about everywhere.

A seamless and a cohesive multi-channel experience is what your audience craves for. To scale your reach, you need to have an omnichannel marketing strategy.

The human access to modern gadgets and technology has enforced you to be creative as a digital marketer. In order to pace up with emerging technologies, you are expected to advertise on all those channels where your audiences reside.

Provide an integrated customer experience to emerge out of the saturation.

Editorial Calendar for your Distribution

An editorial calendar is a great way to simplify and streamline your process.

When you’re working in big teams and handling business becomes a tedious task, content marketing editorial calendars come in handy.

When we have scheduled all our tasks in an editorial calendar and it’s right in front of our eyes, we’re more likely to get things done responsibly. It ensures a better workflow and communication becomes more systematic. Exchange of words done verbally is not that impactful as a soft deadline implied through a tentative plan.

ContentStudio lets you manage a complete social calendar for you and takes care of your distribution strategies.

Conclusion

The biggest challenge for the new-comers in the tech world is Content Marketing. The Saturation makes it hard to compete with the competitive market.

It is necessary to strategically design your content marketing processes.

The first step is of content creation. For that, we have the best strategy for all the beginners; The Skyscraper Technique. This technique is proven to be beneficial for Content Marketers who are ready to revitalize the already existing content.

This strategy helps you to shape your content while taking help from the niche relevant content. It makes it easy for you to scale your content and to gain reader’s inclination towards you. Learn four simple steps to execute this strategy.

The next step is content distribution and outreach. This step holds more significance than content creation itself because marketing is a tricky job; there is no one right way to do it.

In this blog, you’ll learn the Movement-first, Distribution-Next strategy which explains that it is necessary to gain consumer loyalty before distributing your content on a wide scale.

This strategy will help you gain loyal customers and will increase their retention rate.

Therefore, having a proper Distribution plan is vital to get the most out of your efforts.

About the Author

Fatima, a technical writer and a working professional, incorporates with businesses related to software development and training management, her blogs facilitate people to attain a complete picture of the platform she writes for.

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